Getting There: Obviously you are going to have to make a significant effort to reach this distant battlefield, but if you find yourself in Hawaii for other reasons (as I did), this is the ONE area every military historian must visit. Just make sure when you make your driving plans to the memorials you go to the USS Arizona memorial, and not just drive out to “Pearl Harbor.” You may just end up at the military base, and get some light razzing from the Marines on guard duty who constantly have to turn away tourists like us who went to the wrong place! Try to arrive as early as possible to the USS Arizona memorial so you can get on one of the first launches out to the actual site. Not only do you get to wait in the cool of the day as you watch bus after bus of tourists arrive after you, but you also have the best chance of running into a few of the old veterans...
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